1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to an improved method and system for developing an application and in particular to a method and system for tracking objects in a application under development. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for detecting undefined objects in an application under development in a data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, many programmers and application designers utilize application builders to develop a complex application. An application builder is a program that allows a user to develop a complex application. Typically, in a graphic user interface (GUI), the application builder provides a GUI interface to the user for creating an application. The user may select various objects, such as a window, text field, buttons, or sliders, for use in the application being developed. The user may "drag and drop" objects into the desired locations for the application under development.
Various objects are available for use by the user. Objects requiring actions are referred to as "source" or "action" objects and include application specific objects defined by the user and predefined system objects, such as pop-up menus, scroll bars, sliders, push buttons, and menu bars with pull down menus for further selections. Actions on a source object may generate another object, which is the target object. A target object may become a source object that is associated with some further actions.
For example, a menu bar may generate several pull down menus, and each pull down menu item selection may generate a sequence of pop-up menus. Each generated pop-up menu may contain buttons such as okay, cancel, and help. Each button may generate additional pop-up menus.
Typically, users work on multiple objects within the application under development simultaneously and as additional objects are added, it becomes more difficult for a user to insure that every source object is associated with its target objects by the required actions. Currently, users must mentally remember what objects requiring a connection remain unconnected. In such a situation, the user may leave objects with incomplete definitions, specially lacking an association or connection with target objects for carrying out necessary actions.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and system for increasing the efficiency of application building by reducing the need for the user to track undefined objects.